SGEUL NA H-ÉIREANN

DON ÉIREANNACH AS FIÚ.

PREFACE.

Irish history is a long, dark road, with many blind alleys, many sudden

turnings, many unaccountably crooked portions; a road which, if it has a

few sign-posts to guide us, bristles with threatening notices, now upon

the one side and now upon the other, the very ground underfoot being

often full of unsuspected perils threatening to hurt the unwary.

To the genuine explorer, flushed with justified self-confidence, well

equipped for the journey, and indifferent to scratches or bruises, one

may suppose this to be rather an allurement than otherwise, as he spurs

along, lance at rest, and sword on side. To the less well-equipped

traveller, who has no pretensions to the name of explorer at all, no

particular courage to boast of, and whose only ambition is to make the

way a little plainer for some one travelling along it for the first

time, it is decidedly a serious impediment, so much so as almost to

scare such a one from attempting the _rôle_ of guide even in the

slightest and least responsible capacity.

Another and perhaps even more formidable objection occurs. A history

beset with such distracting problems, bristling with such thorny

controversies, a history, above all, which has so much bearing upon that

portion of history which has still to be born, ought, it may be said, to

be approached in the gravest and most authoritative fashion possible, or

else not approached at all. This is too true, and that so slight a

summary as this can put forward no claim to authority of any sort is

evident enough. National "stories," however, no less than histories,

gain a gravity, it must be remembered, and even at times a solemnity

from their subject apart altogether from their treatment. A good reader

will read a great deal more into them than the mere bald words convey.

The lights and shadows of a great or a tragic past play over their easy

surface, giving it a depth and solidity to which it could otherwise lay

no claim. If the present attempt disposes any one to study at first hand

one of the strangest and most perplexing chapters of human history and

national destiny, its author for one will be more than content.

Curious? Read the book